Ancient Amuletor: Into The Ice Review

The recent PlayStation VR first-person tower defense game finally has an expansion. However, does Into The Ice offer enough exciting new content to warrant booting up Ancient Amuletor again?

Kane may look tough but is he capable on the battlefield?

Kane the Viking

When you see a hulking Viking holding a couple of axes, you'd expect him to be a badass in combat. Unfortunately, when you start to play as him, it quickly becomes evident that his axe-throwing abilities aren't quite up to snuff. Simply put, it's incredibly difficult to throw the axes where you want to. I tried a variety of different techniques but the axes would either go in a seemingly random direction or not soar far enough to reach enemies. When you combine this with the poor tracking of the PlayStation Move controllers, you're left with a frustrating mess of a playable character. The best part about him is that he doesn't just throw axes as you'll get assigned a whole assortment of throwable weapons. In the end, he may look cool but he sure is irritating to play as.

The Nordic-themed Ice Cave

Speaking of looking cool, the Ice Cave is definitely a welcome new environment. That being said, it doesn't offer anything new to the gameplay and it ends up feeling like more of the same albeit in a new location. Also, I was hoping to see more replay incentives in this new DLC / update. There is another stage set in Egypt (The Void) but that's available as part of a free update. As far as I know, there are no new trophies (unless they get patched in later) and no extra modes. Don't get me wrong, it's fantastic to have a couple extra levels and an additional character but the fact that there's virtually no new content besides those few items is rather disappointing. You could always try and climb the leaderboards and left-handed folks now have an option to play it more comfortably.

The Ice Cave stage sure is pretty

In the end, if you manage to snag the Into The Ice DLC for free then it's worth a download. However, the lack of any significant new content and the fact that Kane is almost unplayable means that paying for this DLC will likely make you feel cheated.

+ It's great to have yet another character and a couple of different stages

+ Kane and his corresponding Ice Cave stage look pretty cool

- Throwing axes and stuff as Kane is incredibly inaccurate and irritating

A.J. Maciejewski (crazyaejay): Thanks for reading my review of Ancient Amuletor: Into The Ice. Feel free to ask any questions about the game or provide feedback and I'll gladly reply. By the way, you have to unlock the Nordic theme / Ice Cave by completing the other levels, too, which is just silly considering this will eventually be paid DLC.